je ne sais pa
by maygp
Summary: — or ne pa. Adrinette. He barely even knows her, just as he barely knew her back then.


je ne sais pa / ne pa

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_Disclaimer: Characters and show belong to their respective owner._

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Adrien knows that he is making her uncomfortable by the way she refuses to meet his gaze. The roses on her cheeks starts to bloom, but her blue eyes remain somewhere off by his shoulder instead of on him.

She gives a light airy laugh to ease the tension that he is making with his incessant fixation on her.

And no, he is not looking at her in some lecherous way, imagining what is hidden under the light summer dress.

Rather, he stares — almost, glares in his own frustration — at the girl as if she is a puzzle piece to finish, a mystery to solve, a word on the very tip of his tongue begging to fall out.

"I know you", he says slowly, and surely his face is devoid of anything but uncanny determination.

"Right?" he presses on. The woman in front of him hesitates before answering, and he subconsciously notices the bouncing of her leg, half ready to leave if the situation allows her.

"I suppose so", she trails off, head tilting and face grimacing just the slightest, as if deciding on whether or not to give a long or short explanation.

"I mean", she began, "I sort of know you. Like, literally the whole school knew you, and practically the whole city knows you. Well, not _know you_ know you. But know of you?"

She trails off, slightly embarrassed by her own jumbled ramblings, but he ignores it.

"School", he repeats, ignoring the last of her comments because of course, everyone knows of Adrien Agreste, but all he wants is to figure out why he knows of her.

"Is that how we met each other? We went to school together?" He asks, frowning at his poor memory of his days as a student.

"Yes?" Her answers still remain unsure, but Adrien can tell that she is not lying or hiding any ulterior motives. The woman is just merely confused on their current situation and why he is even bothering to continue it.

"What's your name again?" he questions. But there was no need for the _again_ because he's positive he never introduced himself in the beginning of this conversation, nor back then by the locker rooms of the school.

"Marinette, she stutters out. And she — Marinette — purses her lips, peering up at him curious if he at least recognizes her name.

He doesn't.

Marinette.

Marinettemarinettemarinette. _Marinette_.

The name is so unique, yet, so easy to say and remember. But he doesn't. Maybe he heard it once or twice in the hallways, however, not enough for it to just _stick_ to him.

But her face and those eyes and _that smile_.

That was something that his mind had somehow managed to keep tuck away for years only for it to reappear now.

"I'm Adrien", he introduces himself. And he realizes within those silent moments of him thinking and analyzing how their paths crossed before, her face had fallen slightly.

She blinks and peers at him questioningly because they already know who he is.

_But who is she?_, his mind begs to know.

"Did we have science class together or something?" Adrien says, and he internally berates himself because his tone came off as flippant, when he is, in fact, genuinely curious if she was the same girl who sat two spaces away from him, or possibly in the back corner, maybe even in front of him.

But she shakes her head.

"No, we never shared any classes together", she says, and this is the first time her answers sounded so sure and fluent, a stark difference from all her stuttering and hesitation.

"Oh." And he blinks at her.

Then how does he know her?

"But you did have some classes with my old friends", Marinette said, giving another light chuckle, as she reminisces something he is not aware of. "I remember them being excited about it and telling me how cool you looked every other day."

"Really now?" For the first time, his aloof mask breaks away into a tiny grin at the sound of her laugh.

"Yeah," she confirms. He sees that her shoulders are not as tense as before, and the jiggling of her leg has stopped. "They would always say 'Adrien broke the dress code again and took off his tie in class' or 'he was sweating a lot today, and his shirt was sticking to his back'."

Adrien smiles at the ridiculous impersonation she took on, all while a little bewildered to know that people were paying that much attention to him even back then.

But his heart remains curious, and he tilts his head as his lips curl up to ask her.

"Did you ever notice me?"

The question clearly takes her off guard as she sputters just a bit before collecting herself.

"Well yeah", Marinette shrugs, as her voice gets smaller. "It's kind of hard not to notice you."

Adrien is surprised that he takes in delight her expressive reactions. This girl wears her heart on her sleeve, but still remains an enigma.

"Oh?" A brow quirks up. "Whatever did you notice about me?"

He barely registers that his voice has taken a lighter tone when addressing her now. But the realization comes at him hard when he figures out that he is _teasing_ her. He is actually having fun with this not-so-stranger, and it is a feeling that he relishes in.

Marinette hums again before continuing.

"You know, stuff? I mean, you were always with your friends and girlfriends. You guys were always laughing a lot, too."

Oh. He remembers now about all his old companions and ex-lovers that never really left an impact on him.

He was dumb back then, but he was also young and living all that life could offer to a seventeen year old.

Now, look at him. A drifter moving through the motions that his father handed him. Living day to day, night to night, with no unexpected thrills lying in wait.

That is, until tonight.

"How come I never noticed you before, Marinette."

He smiles because he likes saying her name. He smiles at her blush and her shrugs of_ I don't know, I feel like you didn't notice a lot of people back then. What makes me any different?_

What makes her different, indeed.

Maybe he could understand his ability to overlook a shy girl like her back then, but why couldn't he do that tonight in the metro tunnels?

Why did he catch one mere glimpse of her dark tresses? Why did he drift towards her after seeing that small smile as she looked down at her phone? Hurried onto the same cart as her? Sat right in front of her, staring her down like some creep when he was supposed to be on his way home after another bland meeting with his father and their associates?

"Sorry." It is a clipped apology — but Adrien says it anyways, whether it was for ignoring her in school or their uncomfortable reunion, he didn't know. He did it even if he didn't feel sorry at all.

"It's okay." Bless her because he doubts there was any sincerity in his apology.

They continue an easygoing conversation, barely scratching over the enamel of who they really are now, versus who they were years ago. It is the typical catch up between old classmates, full of polite interests and silences.

The metro comes to halt, and he wonders how many stops and people have gone by the two and their useless conversation. Adrien still barely knows her. But she barely knows him, in return.

Marinette smiles as she stands up. "This is my stop."

It's not, from what she has told him she lives somewhere in this arrondissement, and that was five stops ago.

"Okay," he says. His chest constricts because there is an inkling that he might be letting go of something that could mean everything to him.

"I'll see you around, Adrien," she waves as she steps off the empty cart.

They won't. He knows it. They didn't bother to exchange numbers or any sort of

contact. All Adrien could do is rely on chance, or fate, or whatever the hell it is called to cross their paths again.

As the metro departs, he watches her step up to the map postered onto the walls of the subway. He remembers Marinette mentioning that she gets lost very easily. No doubt, she is wondering how to get back on the reversing metro.

But right before his cart enters the darken tunnel, her eyes meets his again.

It is bright and so blue. And it is gone behind the shadowed walls of the tunnels.

When the metro stops, he gets right back on to the opposing one — to get right back to her.

Adrien finds her again in one of the empty tunnels because she manages to make a right when she should have made a left.

She is murmuring and staring at her phone. He feels so entertained by her expressions, and he is even more delighted to see her blue eyes find his own green ones.

Nevertheless, she smiles — a genuine one at that — before asking what he is doing there. There is no accusation in her tone, but curiosity and friendly excitement.

Adrien matches her smile with his own — another thing that he has not been able to do in a long time — and her eyes sparkle a bit more, right as her cheeks redden once again.

"I don't know," he chuckles. He doesn't know anything anymore. He barely even knows her, just as he barely knew her back then.

But maybe he will find the answers with Marinette — a girl that he wants to know.

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AN: Hopefully, I have established an ambiguous and mysterious atmosphere to make up for the lack of plot haha. This story had been in my drafts for a while, and I just wanted to push out another one shot before classes start to pick up again.

Thanks for reading!


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